Monthly Archives: February 2012

Glass has been around since the Early Egyptians. Glass has made many things since that time from pottery, windows and windshields. Glass is a huge automotive innovation and a enormous money maker. Automotive glass had been reengineered to accommodate the wear and tear of driving on the road. From rain, snow and blistering heat, windshield glass needs to be stronger and able to handle extreme weather conditions.

The strength of a windshield is important. The windshield has been created to with stand harsh hits pebbles and small rocks can throw at it. However, sometimes you windshield will meet its match and crack your windshield. When this happens, the designers have made the glass in a way where it will not shatter into small pieces and not allow debris to enter through the windshield endangering all who are in it.

One might have noticed how strong windshields can be. If you have ever seen a shattered windshield you understand the strength it has over a regular window in your house. The creation of a windshield starts with the driver and other passengers in mind. It is made stronger and in a way to prepare itself for a crash. The process of making a windshield starts in this order:

1. Mixing the base ingredients:
a. The ingredients that make up glass are mixed with water and broken glass particles to prevent segregation and add strength.

2. Cutting:
a. The glass is cut into diamond shape that makes the glass stronger than regular glass. The glass then is poured into a mold and heated to give the windshields its bow shape.

3. Laminating:
a. The laminating process gives the glass its strength. Two sheets of glass are attached by a layer of plastic that acts as a bond between the two sheets. The sheets are then made into one sheet by a process of heating and pressuring the glass.
b. In the United States and many other countries laminated glass is required for automotives.

4. Assembly:
a. The windshield is now ready for assembly and may have rubber and plastic attachments connected when assembled into a car.

When a windshield becomes damaged people use to have to replace the whole windshield, but this became very expensive. Now a day’s people are more prone to repair their windshield which is a cheaper option. Some insurance agencies actually have windshield repair in their policies. Repairing a windshield can cost up to $50.00 for the first chip then around $15.00 for any additional chips. A crack can be around $150.00 depending on size of the crack. These prices are still cheaper compared to $350.00 to $1,000.00 for a replaced windshield.

Engines by design have a lot of power, this is necessary in that most cars are very heavy. At times, there may be a need to increase the power of an engine, either for racing, heavier payload, or simply owner’s choice. There are a lot of ways to increase the power, one way is by making the engine run more efficiently. This can be done by pressuring more air into the chamber of combustion; this is where a supercharger comes into play. By adding more air, you are able to put more fuel into the engine, which translates directly to a larger explosion in the chamber and added horsepower.
Turbochargers or Superchargers

Any device that pressurizes the air intake and brings it to above atmospheric pressure is considered a supercharger. In essence, a turbo charger and a super charger are the same, what differentiates one from the other is their energy source. A Turbo is energized from the massive flow of exhaust gasses from the turbine; Supercharger is energized mechanically from the chain drive or belt in the engine.

A typical four-stroke engine will dedicate air intake to one stroke in all there are three parts to this endeavor. First, a piston will move down, a vacuum will be created, and then the air at the proper pressure is then pulled into the combustion chamber for the next steps in the process. After the air is brought into the engine, it has to be added to the gas to complete the transformation into combustion. The spark plug housed n the engine is the catalyst for this transformation. Its job is to ignite the charge. The gas then goes through oxidation which releases a large amount of energy. This explosion creates a force which is held above the head of the cylinder and drives it down, this reciprocating motion is carried via conduits to the wheels.

Of course, this process seems simple in words. It would seem that all you need to do is add more gas to make the explosion more powerful and thus the engine more powerful right? Not quite. A specific amount of air is needed to burn each part of gas, exactly 14 parts of air for each part of gas is required for an engine to run properly. If you use more gas, then you have to add more air.

That’s the job of the supercharger. Superchargers increase intake by compressing air above atmospheric pressure, without creating a vacuum. When air is forced inside, then a boost is created, due to the boost of air, more fuel can be put into the charge thus increasing the horsepower exponentially. In the case of turbochargers, the power is drawn from the compressors, but in the case of superchargers, it’s taken from the crankshaft. The shafts are typically run by belts wrapped around a pulley and saddled to the gear drive. While all of this may sound highly complex, and it certainly is, it all happens within the space of milliseconds inside of your engine.

Windshield wipers have been around for many years and were made to help improve what people could see while they were driving a motor vehicle. Windshield wipers used to work with a manual controller that people had to operate themselves, but it was not long before automatic wipers were invented. Many people would argue that operating manual windshield wipers is dangerous, after all it is a distraction that keeps you from being fully aware of what is going on, on the road. Technology has enabled automatic windshield wipers on every vehicle you see today, and they have been specially designed to detect a visibility problem. They are made to clear the glass before debris completely takes drivers visibility away.

Rain Sensing wipers is commonly used to describe a system that has been made to clear any windshield from weather conditions such as rain, hail, or snow, without the driver of the vehicle having to interfere. The system automatically alters the speed and rate of the wipers depending on the weather condition and how slow, or fast it is falling from the sky. This keeps outward visibility possible at all times and can help prevent fatal accidents from occurring. The way the sensors work may seem more complex than it actually is. There is a small, designated area on the outside of the front window that sits opposite the review mirror which is an optical sensor. The sensor projects light at the windshield, although it is not noticeable to the driver, and the light should reflect all of the light back to the sensor, if it doesn’t, then it is usually because there is something in between the glass and sensor, such as rain or snow, and the sensor than knows it needs to clean the windshield with the windshield wipers. The sensor speeds up, or slows down, according to the speed in which the rain or snow is falling. As a precaution, most all vehicles that have censored wipers must activate them every time they wish to use them. This ensures that they will not go off if your windshield is icy, or if you happen to be in a car wash, as if they were to go off in such circumstances, it could damage not only your wipers, but your windshield too. Having censored wipers can be great if you live in places where there is constantly in consist rain and snow, and it helps you keep your focus more on the road and other drivers and less what is going on with your wipers. Because so many accidents occur when a driver is distracted, this can minimize the chances you will be involved in an accident as you only have to activate the wipers once, and after that, they know what to do. The majority of new cars already have censored windshield wipers, but if you vehicle does not; they are not hard to find, or install in your vehicle.

Censored windshield wipers are convenient and as many would argue safer than manual windshield wipers, so if you don’t already have them installed in your vehicle, it is worth your while.